Barack Obama Birthday Quotes

Former President Barack Obama says big tech firms are 'tilting us in the wrong direction' putting democracy in peril.

Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States and the first African-American to hold the office, turns 61 Thursday.

The former POTUS was born Aug. 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Obama's first name, Barack, means "blessed" in Swahili. It was also his father's name. Obama, who is a Harvard Law School graduate, is a highly-sought after speaker and a role model to many.

Here are some of his inspirational sayings from Brainy Quote:

1. "We need to keep making our streets safer and our criminal justice system fairer - our homeland more secure, our world more peaceful and sustainable for the next generation."

2. "The future rewards those who press on. I don't have time to feel sorry for myself. I don't have time to complain. I'm going to press on."

3. "Nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change."

4. "Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. And it will leave you unfulfilled."

5. "Now, as a nation, we don't promise equal outcomes, but we were founded on the idea everybody should have an equal opportunity to succeed. No matter who you are, what you look like, where you come from, you can make it. That's an essential promise of America. Where you start should not determine where you end up."

6. "In the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope."

7. "Understand, our police officers put their lives on the line for us every single day. They've got a tough job to do to maintain public safety and hold accountable those who break the law."

8. "Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."

9. "Societies held together by fear and repression may offer the illusion of stability for a time, but they are built upon fault lines that will eventually tear asunder."

10. "A good compromise, a good piece of legislation, is like a good sentence; or a good piece of music. Everybody can recognize it. They say, 'Huh. It works. It makes sense.'"